On 3 – 4 October 1993 the constitutional crisis between president and parliament reached a climax. Wikipedia summarizes as follows:
‘On 3 October, demonstrators removed police cordons around the parliament and, urged by their leaders, took over the Mayor’s offices and tried to storm the Ostankino television centre. The army, which had initially declared its neutrality, stormed the Supreme Soviet building in the early morning hours of 4 October by Yeltsin’s order, and arrested the leaders of the resistance. At the climax of the crisis, Russia was thought by some to be “on the brink” of civil war.’
